


On the Moonlit Floor

by Kagetsukai



Category: Dragon Age, Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Dancing, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Halamshiral, Kissing, The Winter Palace (Dragon Age)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-08
Updated: 2018-01-08
Packaged: 2019-03-02 08:40:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13314549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kagetsukai/pseuds/Kagetsukai
Summary: The evening at the Winter Palace had been a loud and exciting affair, but once the dust settled, Evelyn was looking for a moment of peace away from the bustle of the ball. What she hadn't expected to find was a moment of reprieve in the arms of her Commander.





	On the Moonlit Floor

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sloth_Race](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sloth_Race/gifts).



Perhaps this was not how Evelyn had expected her night to go, but the view of Cullen bowing before her, hand stretched out, made her heart stutter is all sorts of interesting ways..

“May I have this dance, my lady?” he asked in his smooth baritone.

 _You may have this dance and the rest of me with it_ , her mind supplied. Instead, she nodded her acquiescence and reached out to entwine their fingers.

“Of course. I thought you didn’t dance.”

“For you, I’ll try,” he said with a quiet smile.

He gently pulled at her hand and she freely stepped into his embrace. She didn’t expect much out of this dance, so when he presented her with a perfect frame to rest her hands on, she gave him a sideways glance. The hand at her shoulder blade pressed on her a bit and he guided her into a simple one-two-three rhythm. It felt easy and she briefly narrowed her eyes at him.

“You lied to me, Cullen,” she accused him. “You said you didn’t dance.”

His face softened around the edges as he looked at her with a smirk, which quickly turned into a smug grin. It made him look that much more attractive and Evelyn stared a little.

“I don’t,” he said with a shrug. “Or rather I didn’t know how until this accursed pomp became the main focus of the Inquisition. Once I found out I would have to make an appearance at the ball, I begged Josephine to teach me at least one of the dances. By all means, I'm not great at it - I only had a month to learn anything.”

He stepped to the side and guided her through a spin, into a somewhat complicated step and back into his arms.

“You are showing off,” Evelyn pointed out.

He chuckled. “I went to such great lengths to learn this, I might as well use it, don’t you think?”

She nodded in concession. “True. But you could have been dancing with all of the ladies at the ball and show off your newfound prowess there. I can just imagine how much more popular you could become,” she teased.

His face curled into a brief, but intense snarl. “And let these vultures watch my every move? Judge my every mistake? Put their hands on me? No, thank you. I would rather fight a horde of demons. Or wrestle a druffalo.”

She burst out laughing at his impassioned admission. It was exactly how she felt, though she had no luxury of bowing out of social engagements. There was always a lord of somewhere to please and impress.

As if on cue with her thoughts she heard a voice drawl out ‘Inquisitor in that distinct Orlesian accent. They were looking for her and whomever had spoken was just beyond the balcony. Evelyn tensed up and the laughter immediately died on her lips. If she was spotted, she would get dragged back into the ballroom and her considerably improved evening would sour again.

“I’ve got you. Hold on,” Cullen whispered into her ear. In one swift step he moved his body closer to hers, while still spinning them around in a dance. “Just hide your face against my neck. Don’t let them recognize you.”

She nodded wordlessly and did as he asked. 

It felt so intimate to have her forehead pressed into his cheek, breathing in his scent and enjoying the rough scratch of his stubble on her skin. She loved it. She couldn’t see where they were moving - she could tell he was steering them away from the glass doors - but she trusted Cullen to keep her safe. And she felt safe, wrapped in his arms and soaking in his warmth.

“Down the stairs. Now,” he breathed into her ear and they broke apart. 

It took Evelyn almost three short breaths to reorient herself, while her body shivered from the lack of his presence. She looked down and noticed they were at the edge of a staircase and Cullen was leading her down. It was a brilliant plan, really: pretend to be random Inquisition persons dancing together and then quietly slip away to the gardens. Instead of weariness of the ball, she suddenly felt giddy with excitement, like she was a teenager sneaking away with her forbidden lover.

The moment the word _lover_ blossomed in her mind, she became acutely aware that their fingers were still weaved together while he led her away from the music. His face clearly showed focus, searching for the next path to take, but all she could think of was his warm hand holding hers and how absolutely lovely that was.

“Damnation!” he cursed and looked to her. “I think I got turned around. I can’t remember the layout of this blasted garden.”

“Commander! So much foul language coming from you today,” she teased him again. With a quick smile and a squeeze of his hand, she pulled them to the left. “There’s a large labyrinth of trellises here. We can get away over there.”

Evelyn didn’t wait for him to reply, or agree even. With a steady pull at his arm, she lead him further away into the giant garden. She turned left once, then right, then right again, before she stopped in front of an elaborate trellis covered in red roses, an entrance to the gardens proper.

“This is it. I just hope that the servants managed to clear away the dead bodies,” she murmured to herself stepped forward.

He gave her an incredulous look as he followed. “Dead bodies?”

Cullen didn’t seem upset or outraged at her admission - he sounded sad - and Evelyn suddenly felt like the most corrupt, dirtiest human that has walked the earth. She let go of his hand and looked away, trying to force her mind to remember the path to the Inquisition wing without cutting through the main hall. Anything to distract her thoughts from what she had done earlier in the evening.

“I had to cut through a lot of enemies to uncover the plot tonight, Commander,” she whispered, her voice tired even to her own ears.

A glove-covered hand gripped her shoulder and she turned to watch Cullen give her a sad, sad smile.

“You do not have to do this alone, Evelyn,” he murmured and took a step closer. “You have others to help you, to stay at your side when you need it most.”

Ah, yes. The ever-present advice to ‘stay strong’ and ‘lean on others’ was all well and good in theory, but how did one reconcile the fact that she was becoming a mage dictator who would decimate a crowd of nameless people just to understand a political plot? Who knew how many more would have to lose their lives by her hand before this war was over?

How much more of herself she’d have to sacrifice before no more was left?

“I alone get to make the hard decisions, Cullen,” she pointed out quietly. “It rests on me and no one else to either become a monster people revile, or their most celebrated hero. And in the end, the weight of the world might crush me anyway.”

The more she spoke the words, the more bitter she felt. She had ruined the evening anyway, not by getting captured by politicking Orlesians, but by her own demons that haunted her every hour. Already lost in thought, she gasped in surprise when Cullen’s arms draped around her and he pressed her gently to his chest. His scent enveloped her again and she reflexively molded herself to him.

“Let me help you shoulder the burden, Evelyn,” he murmured into her ear. “I won’t let you be alone.”

Evelyn leaned out of his embrace just enough to watch his eyes look down at her with the sort of expression that made her heart pound at double the speed and her knees weak like the jelly. Suddenly all of those times when he stared at her across the war table with an expression she couldn’t read became clear as day. She knew exactly what her next step should be.

“Oh, Cullen,” she exhaled and stepped onto her toes.

As she pressed her lips to his, all Evelyn could think was how surprisingly soft they were and how much they complimented the roughness of his stubble. It felt lovely, though the fact he did not kiss her back soon had her drawing back with a frown. Did he not care for her enough to kiss her?

“Cull--?”

While the first kiss was tender and sweet, when Cullen kissed her back it was passion and want and desperation speaking wordlessly through the play of his mouth against hers. His hands moved up to hold her face in place while her fingers dug into the dress jacket of his uniform, hoping to not lose a single second of this delightful moment. He gently nipped at her lower lip and she sighed into his mouth with pleasure; it gave him access and permission to seek out the warmth of her tongue as he plundered her relentlessly. It did not take long for them to need to break for air.

Cullen looked positively disheveled, Evelyn realized, his face gaining a positively rosy look about it, while his hair fell onto his face in thick strands - she vaguely remembered running her fingers through that golden mane. While his hands still rested against her neck, his eyes pointed everywhere but her own eyes.

“That was… nice,” he said with a nervous chuckle. “I… I--”

Evelyn raised one eyebrow and smirked. “I believe that was a kiss, but I can’t be sure…”

The invitation was evident and she did not have to wait long for him to look at her again. Instead of worry or apprehension, pure joy shone through her eyes and the strength of it stole Evelyn’s breath away. Did he really care about her that much? Was this real? Any further thoughts escaped her as Cullen let a laugh escape his mouth and he leaned in for another kiss.

They did not go back to the ball, instead choosing to hide in various corners of the expansive gardens, kissing each other senseless, talking about things that weren’t the Inquisition, and holding each other close. And as they walked back to their quarters, hand in hand, the Winter Palace did not seem as horrible as Evelyn had been led to believe; after all, that’s where she got a certain Commander to finally kiss her.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!!! Comments and kudos are love.


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